Female sex workers are a deprived part of Islamic communities. It is necessary for public health policy makers to have knowledge about their mental health status. This study aims to have an evaluation of mental health among female sex workers in Tabriz for the first time in northwest of Iran. In this cross-sectional study, 48 female sex workers who had accepted to be evaluated were included. Sociodemographic and general mental health statuses, using General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), were recorded. Those with GHQ-28 score more than 23/24 in the first session were thoroughly interviewed in a second session in order to find out their specific mental disorder, using Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV axis 1 and 2 Disorders (SCID 1 and 2). This study suggests that 62.5% of female sex workers suffer from a mental health problem which is in accordance with previous studies. Mood and anxiety disorder were two of the most common, and there were also records of personality disorders among participants of this survey. There were also high rates of addiction in female sex workers of this study. Based on findings of this study, high rates of mental disorders such as personality disorders, anxiety disorder, and mood disorder were detected among female sex workers in the northwest of Iran. Financial incentive was reported to be the primary motivation for choosing sex work as a source of income.

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Pistacia vera L. is one of the most important horticultural crops in Iran. The stink bugs Acrosternum arabicum and Brachynema germari are two of the key pests that cause significant direct and indirect damage on Pistacia vera. Egg parasitoids have been considered as potential biological control agents of pistachio green stink bugs. Among them, Trissolcus semistriatus and Psix saccharicola are the most abundant and efficient parasitoid for A. arabicum in pistachio orchards. In this study, we assessed lethal and sublethal effects of two commonly used insecticide products (fenitrothion and a binary mixture of lambda-cyhalothrin + thiamethoxam) on these two parasitoid wasps under laboratory conditions. The median lethal concentration (LC50) values for fenitrothion and thiamethoxam + lambda-cyhalothrin in P. saccharicola and T. semistriatus were estimated as 1.03, 0.48 and 0.87, 0.98 mg a.i./liter, respectively. In terms of sublethal effects, insecticide treatments altered the type of functional response from type III to type II in T. semistriatus. However, P. saccharicola exhibited a type II functional to density of A. arabicum for all treatments, although attack rates were lower for insecticide-exposed wasps while handling times increased. Our results show that sublethal effects of insecticides further reduce the efficacy of biological control agents. Effective integrated pest management programs should avoid antagonistic interactions between chemical and biological control methods. The results of this study provide useful information to develop comprehensive integrated pest management programs for stink bugs in pistachio orchards.